In a 1936 presentation about "Places not Well Known, Near Home," local historian Philip S. Nutt took his audience (which included veterans of World War I) on a journey below Schooner Landing. "Going south we come to a large farm that was bought for World War Vets, but did not last," Nutt told them.

Further pinpointing the location, Nutt said, "At the south end of the farm there is a sandy road that leads to the Maurice River - and on a high bank where now stands a few oak trees was the old Swedish Cemetery."

Decades later, a newspaper clipping added more details to Mr. Nutt's description of this location. The dateline of the clipping has been partially cut off, but what is readable dates the article, "Millville, January 1975 or 1976." The subtitle is intriguing: Unmistakable Marks Indicate There May Have Been Village Back Of "Legion Farm" (Exact wording.)

Halfway into article the clipping reads: "Few cabins were built in this immediate locality much before the Revolutionary War, but just a few miles south of this particular section, there is reason to believe that there was a thriving settlement by Swedish adventurers who journeyed up river at a spot on the eastern shore between Menantico and Port Elizabeth. The exact location of this first settlement is described as being almost immediately in the rear of what has lately been known as the Legion Farm, so-called because shortly after the World War that property was acquired as a home for convalescent soldiers. Historians say it was Cumberland County's first settlement by the white man."

Ken Camp is a local resident who lives in Port Norris. He's worked the land and the edges of the river for decades. As a farmer, railbird pusher, and hunter, Camp said that in his line of work it was the meadows that needed names. "We hunted the meadows and we had those named. The reaches most certainly correspond with the meadows behind them," he explained.

Camp is familiar with the Legion Meadow. He said others referred to that location as the Legion Farm, but he didn't know where the name came from.

Richard Weatherby also collaborated the name in speaking to Jane Morton Galetto.  He stated that his grandfather referred to that stretch of the river as "Legions Reach." The name definitely derives from the Legion Farm convalescent home located on the reach.

Presently, Diane and Ted Prohowich live in what was the Legion's convalescent home located at 3166 Route 47 Port Elizabeth.  The home belonged to Diane's family. 6/06.